Beyond Gender Binary

The German legal system is founded on the assumption that sex is binary. Nevertheless, since 2013 people can be registered as neither female nor male if they have traits of both sexes. In October 2017 the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that these designations do not go far enough to comply with intersexual persons' right of privacy and the right of equal treatment. Lawmakers will have to amend statutory provisions by the end of 2018. Will they introduce a third gender category or even dispense with gender altogether? What legal obstacles do these two options face?

Judith Froese is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Cologne, Germany. She has passed the first and second state law examination and received her PhD in law. Her doctoral thesis has been funded by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments and the German Foundation for Property. Her research interests focus on the theory of law and public law, including fundamental rights and gender. Judith Froese’s habilitation thesis is on "Personal groups and categories in law." Her scholarship at UCLA is being funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).